All of the world is a stage, and Will Wilhelm knows it. Their new production at About Face (cocreated and directed by Erin Murray), Gender Play, or what you Will, is the perfect platform for them to explore their gender journey while also expressing their more dramatic side via monologuing with a side of dissertation. […]
Tag: About Face Theatre
Mosque4Mosque upends stereotypes
Mosque4Mosque is not a monolithic representation of the Arab American Muslim experience, and perhaps that’s exactly the point. Written by Omer Abbas Salem and directed by Sophiyaa Nayar, this charming production challenges all preconceived notions of a play about an Arab American Muslim family. In this sitcom-esque dramedy, Ibrahim (played by Salem) and his family […]
Umamicue, Mosque4Mosque, concerts, dancing, and more
Already hungry for some hearty fare? Join Monday Night Foodball this evening as the “barbecue supergroup” Umamicue brings A Very Umamicue Friendsgiving to the Kedzie Inn (4100 N. Kedzie). Expect an array of flavors including wasabi turkey confit croquettes (who doesn’t love a croquette?) with five-spice cranberry sauce, courtesy of the “Asian stoner food” duo […]
A Black perspective on the French Revolution
Sometimes to understand the present, we must look at the past. In 2017, playwright Terry Guest grappled with how America could elect someone so outwardly racist as Donald Trump. It shocked him into questioning what could be done about the rise of fascism in the U.S. “Do we protest? Does that work?” Guest asked himself. […]
Southern spells
A good play, suggests Tony Kushner in his 1995 anthology Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue, “should be overstuffed.” Memorably comparing well-constructed theater to lasagna, he writes that a work of theater “should have barely been rescued from the mess it might just as easily have been” and, at its best, “has a bursting […]
Laced has echoes of Stonewall and Pulse
Sam Mueller’s Laced lives in the shadow of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, but it is rooted in a club that preceded Pulse by several generations: Stonewall. Through Mueller’s monologue-dependent script, About Face Theatre creates a contemporary story that also gives voice to the history that helped forge it. In director Lexi Saunders’s raw, emotive […]
Jump into spring with these Chicagoland events
The spring equinox (the moment when the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are of equal length) for this year starts at 10:33 AM on Sunday 3/20, and brings our chance to check out Chicagohenge (if you go to the Loop, you might see the sun framed by our skyscrapers). And […]
Collective healing
Queer bars are more than just bars that happen to be queer. They can be a refuge, a meeting place, and, quite literally, a safe space. They’re also places where our history has been written: from the Stonewall riots to the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Sam Mueller’s latest production unpacks what happens when the safety and […]
Pride 2021: picnics, music, boat races, and (digital) performances
The parade’s postponed till October, but you can still celebrate Pride outdoors and online this month.
About Face turns 25 by nurturing the next generation of LGBTQ+ artists
About Face Theatre takes the mystery out of training next-generation LGBTQ+ artists—while putting it into a streaming production.
Retail, resistance, and rebirth in Wally World and Kickback
Christmas Eve goes to 11 in Isaac Gómez’s workplace comedy; About Face celebrates Black queer lives, past and present.
From Greenhouse to hotbed
A show reopens and closes under fire; plus new leadership and a new funding initiative for Black theater makers
COVID can’t stop the Pride celebration
This year, queer performers dismantle digital boundaries while creating their own spaces.
A couple faces a becalmed relationship in The Gulf
About Face’s two-hander boasts stellar performances.
Packing follows one gay man’s journey to confront his midwestern ghosts
Scott Bradley’s solo show for About Face creates an important document of queer life.